Lining Cages with Fleece

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Pookahsmom said:
I am about to switch to liners instead of Aspen. I have several chins who are already "potty trained" and use a litter box. I started out using metal baking tins but am thinking of going to pyrex as it will not rust and smell as urine collects. Let me know what you think of the idea........am open to other suggestions.:thumbsup:
Thanks, Kathy

PS will still use shavings though only a small amount in the litter box. What do you guys use in the litter box? Can you used the recycled paper stuff or the shredded colored paper stuff?:thinking:
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I love my liners and am very happy with them. They have industrial velcro on them to keep them down and I use metal pans for the litter boxes (mine are trained as well) but your Pyrex dishes would work well also. I use Aspen in the litter box and that seems to actually helped train them because that is what they were on at the breeders. I would recommend either pine or aspen in the litter box, but that's just my $.02. Good luck!
 
Sasha said:
got my 5" pans from Grandview Rabbitry
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What type of cage do you have? Do you remember how much the pan was? Sorry to be nosey :) I am getting my 3rd FN tomorrow and was trying to compare prices. I got my other pans from Bass.
 
Gosh guys, this thread was helpful. I think I'm going to finally try out liners, they just seem easier.
 
I love my liners! I have the bass pans and a litter pan in the corner. They have a ramp and the litter pan is at the end of the ramp, because that's where they decided they would pee. I tried moving it, but they still peed there! So I keep the pan there. It's round, so it isn't ideal.. but it was the only one that would fit in the space! I use aspen in the litter pan and clean it out daily. No smells for me! The shavings from the litter pan used to come out of the cage because I was using lower pans (not the bass ones), but I switched back to the bass and no shavings outside! SO much cleaner for me!!
 
I switched to fleece liners this past weekend and it has been going great so far! No smell, they've stuck to peeing in their litter pan, and they've been sleeping in their hut on top of the fleece much more than they had been on the shavings! I put a liner in on Saturday and it's not smelling at all. It's also very easy to sweep up the poops and hay on the fleece to keep things neater. I'm so glad we gave it a try!
 
How do you guys get them to use litter? Mine pee where ever...and even when I let them out in the corners of the dining room.

I'd love to have them use one area but one guy come down to the bottom during the day. i think the other just pees in their box.
 
I was a lucky one where they just picked it up, pretty quickly also. I've heard of putting some of their peed on shavings in the litter pan and see if that works. Or if they have a certain corner they pee in, put the pan there.

Some chins just won't do it though. You might just try a few things and be patient with them. :)
 
I used liners for the chins for awhile, but I hated the shavings in the litter pans because it stuck in the fleece so bad, so I tried just liners and that worked pretty well, but I just didn't have time to make enough liners so I always had one for the cage and one out, so I switched back to shavings. I also had a few chins that wanted to chew the liners. Crazy little buggars. I did use 2 layers of fleece and a towel in the middle in most of mine and they are quite absorbant.
 
I started using aluminum cake pans, but switched to Pyrex baking dishes since they were easier to wash/keep clean.

Also, I have a round Pyrex pie plate that I use since it's lower on the sides than the baking dishes and fits under the wheel in the corner.
 
Sierrasmom97 said:
What type of cage do you have? Do you remember how much the pan was? Sorry to be nosey :) I am getting my 3rd FN tomorrow and was trying to compare prices. I got my other pans from Bass.
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I have FN cages. It's a Canadian company so shipping may be expensive but they were $15CAD and since our dollar is bad you should get it fairly cheaper than that.
 
Well it has been 3 days of pan liners and we are one happy group! No more shaving all over and the poo isn't even flung as far as it usually is. However, instead of towels we used an old quilt that I picked up at Goodwill (or St Vinnies) that I could cut into squares. Pookah still pees wherever she feels like but she is alpha so.......
Clean up is waaaaaaaaaay easier!
As for the question about the type of cages, we have mostly pan type but we do have a ire bottow where the tray goes under it. What else is nice is that the fleece liners help to dull the thuds that occur when someone decides to "throw" their dishes aroiund! Lol
 
I'm considering liners but am still a little hesitant. With 4+ chins how will the smell be?

Also do you just fit it to the bottom or around the sides as well?
 
DaphnesandFreddysmom said:
I'm considering liners but am still a little hesitant. With 4+ chins how will the smell be?

Also do you just fit it to the bottom or around the sides as well?
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The ones I have made have industrial velcro on them and they stick to the pan, the chins don't even try to pull them up. Mine don't smell as long as I wash them once a week however, my chins potty in their bedding pans. If your chins potty on the fleece, I would wash them every couple of days.
 
I personally just use the aspen bedding, I got 2 huge bags of it from Petco for about $14. I swear the amount we have will last 2 years. I personally hate doing laundry and am the type that would probably forget about it or get lazy and not wash the fleece or change it but that's just me.

Bedding is cheap enough if you look for the sales and from what I've read, for a lazy person such as myself, cleaning the fleece would just be a pain. 10 minutes to clean the cage is still too much for me. I can dump the shavings and replace them in about 2 minutes.

It's just preference I think.
 
well we put liners in our chin, Daphne's cage this weekend. The girls pee whereever so we wanted to try the liners on a chin cage where the chin isn't litter box trained first so we can see how bad it'd be before switching everyone.

So far it's been in since Friday night and it's going great. We're going to wash it tomorrow but it's not smelling as of yet. We were able to get something called liquid stitch it's non toxic and we used that to hold the fleece together. We also used the industrial strength velcro and the fleece has not moved once. Daphne seems to like it as well it's very comfortable for her.

We only used 2 layers of fleece as well but it seems to be holding up ok. We just figure we'd have to wash it a little more often than if we put a third layer in or something in the middle but that's ok with us.

If things keep going this well though we will definetely keep up with the liners though. It cost me $15 to make 2 liners but I do have enough to make a hammock as well so we figure we spend $15 for 2 months worth of bedding so if we get more than 2 months of use out of the liners it'll be worth it.

My question is where can I find cheaper fleece? We tried Micheals but they didn't have any fabric we found what we're using now at Walmart but is there any other place that I could look for cheaper fabric? Maybe something that puts fleece on sale sometimes?
 
I don't know if you have a JoAnn Fabrics in your area, but they put fleece on sale every other day it seems! I just picked up all new fleece for my Newton's cage at 40% off! Even better, you can join their mailing list and get coupons for 40 and 50 percent off single cut purchases. Good luck!!
 
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